Five Times Yugi Learned About The Spirit and One Time He Learned About
by transryou
Summary: And one time he learned about Ryou. Lots of heartshipping fluff. [Cross posted on AO3]
1. Sleep

It had been an offhanded comment Yugi'd made that started off the conversation. It was 12 at night and the two of them were sitting on Ryou's couch staring intently at the open world rpg Ryou had just bought. Yugi heard Ryou yawn to the left of him, and he smirked.

"You're tired already? I'd always taken you for a night owl," he said casually, looking back at the television. Ryou's brows furrowed in confusion.

"What do you mean?" he asked, chancing a glance away from the game to look at Yugi.

"I mean, back in school you'd always show up with dark circles under your eyes and you'd nearly fall asleep during lunch. I always figured it was because you were up doing homework or painting your figurines," Yugi shrugged as he explained. He waited for a response from Ryou, but none came. He continued watching the screen, but as minutes passed it became clear Ryou was wandering aimlessly. He'd begun ignoring the little arrow at the top pointing towards the main mission and was running around the map occasionally fighting some basic enemies. Yugi finally looked away from the screen to Ryou, and noticed he seemed to be deep in thought.

"Uh, everything okay Ryou? You're not going the right way to the boss…" Yugi pointed out, hoping to garner some response. Ryou's eyes seemed to focus back on the screen again after Yugi spoke up, but the strange look on his face didn't go away.

"Oh right, sorry, just got distracted," he let out a sheepish laugh and turned his character around.

"Sure…" Yugi muttered, "Hey, I'm sorry if what I said bothered you. I wasn't trying to insult you, I'm kind of a night owl myself," he offered, giving a slight smile. Normally that would bring Ryou back, but this time it didn't seem to. Instead Ryou paused the game and turned his full focus to Yugi.

"Oh no, I didn't take it as an insult," he spoke quickly, giving the nervous smile Yugi had grown familiar with, "It was just… I mean, I used to be when I was a kid. I used to have a really hard time sleeping, but when I moved here I would fall asleep at 10 at the latest almost every night."

Yugi stayed silent, trying to piece together what exactly Ryou was trying to say. If he was going to bed on time why would he still be-

Oh.

The realization must have showed on Yugi's face, Ryou gave a short nervous laugh and looked away.

"I'd assumed I just wasn't sleeping well because I was somewhere new, but you don't get bruises and cuts from not sleeping well," he sighed, moving his hand from the controller to fiddle with the necklace he'd worn ever since he'd finally been separated from the Millennium Ring, "I figured out what was happening after we went to Duelist Kingdom, but I didn't really know what to do about it so I didn't say anything," he pulled his hand away from the necklace and put it back on the controller, unpausing the game.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Yugi asked in as gentle a tone as he could manage. He felt hurt that Ryou didn't seem to see the issue with hiding this from the people who told him they would help.

"I didn't want to make him angry," he sighed, "I couldn't hide what I did from the spirit, and if I told you he'd find out and I didn't know what he would do. I didn't want him to think I was trying to find some way to get rid of him, he'd finally let me have friends and I didn't want him to decide to take that from me again."

"Ryou, you know Atem could have helped-"

"Did I?" he said harshly, Yugi saw himself cringe after he spoke the words. Ryou almost never spoke in a way that could be seen as violent or harsh, and Yugi couldn't deny the split second he saw him as the spirit and not his friend. Ryou sighed.

"All I knew of him at the time was he'd been willing to sacrifice Kaiba's life, anything else he did I wasn't awake for. I trusted you but, I didn't know if the spirit in the puzzle would even tolerate me after what the spirit had done to you and your friends," he sighed, "If he was anything like my spirit, he'd make sure you didn't see me anymore. I know it was selfish but I just wanted to pretend that I was just having a normal relationship with normal people and didn't have to worry about them all disappearing."

Yugi sighed. He didn't know what to even say to that. He wanted to defend Atem, but he remembered that there were plenty of times when he'd first met the spirit that he feared him. He'd attempted to quit dueling after the incident with Kaiba, and he couldn't blame Ryou for being hesitant. He also didn't know how to let Ryou know it was okay- he knew that it wasn't, and if he was being honest he was so happy to see Ryou admit something wasn't okay for once. Seeing him admit his worries, show something other than the idle happiness he put up whenever they were at school or in public.

"Do you sleep okay now?" Yugi finally spoke. He needed to pull Ryou back to the present, back to the world where he didn't have to worry about possession, death, or being close to people. It took a moment for Ryou to respond, but soon his mouth twitched up.

"I take something to help, but yeah. As long as I don't get too caught up in writing for campaigns," Yugi smiled as Ryou spoke.

"Is tonight gonna be one of those night?"

Ryou seemed to think for a moment, "We don't have to get up early in the morning, right?"

"Not if we don't want to."

"Then I guess it will be. Do you have the guide on how to beat this guy pulled up?"


	2. Stitches

Yugi had always been accident prone. He tended to find himself on the floor a lot in gym class, and in the early years of high school he was a magnet for bullies. It hadn't helped that many of the people he'd dueled with the Pharaoh hadn't been above physically injuring young kids. As such, he was no stranger to scrapes and the occasional burn when things got too intense. But after Atem moved on, he found himself forgetting what surface wounds felt like, so when he was fiddling with one of Ryou's knives he used when he was performing rituals and the like and he cut into his hand on accident he couldn't help but be taken by surprise by just how much it had hurt. He'd tried to take care of it himself, but as soon as Ryou saw him tending to it he took over.

"You know those knives aren't meant for cutting flesh, right?" Ryou joked. Yugi smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah I know, I wasn't trying to. I was just looking at it and I wasn't holding it well enough I guess," he hissed as Ryou continued to clean the cut. "You don't think I'm gonna need to go to the hospital for this, right?" Ryou paused for a moment, then responded.

"No, I can take care of this. It is gonna need stitches though," he winced as he said that, knowing Yugi hated stitches. Yugi raised an eyebrow.

"If I need stitches then why do I not need to go to the hospital?" as he said that Ryou stood up and disappeared down the hall for a moment. When he returned he had a small box in his hands.

"Because I can take care of it," he said taking a seat again and popping the box open. He could see the box was filled with medical supplies- none of which Yugi had thought Ryou had any reason to keep in his house.

"Uh, where did you even get that stuff? This is more than just a first aid kit," he leaned forward to look deeper into the box. He'd expected there to just be bandages and maybe antiseptic, but instead there were things he'd only really seen in hospitals.

"I don't know," Ryou responded absentmindedly, searching through the box for whatever it was he needed. After a moment the words seemed to catch up with him, and he stopped fiddling through the box. "I mean, I-" he looked over at Yugi, "I think that the spirit stole it from… somewhere. It was just on the counter one morning with a note that I should learn how to use the things inside."

Yugi didn't say anything to that, opting to just nod instead. It was pretty rare the two of them spoke about the spirit, any time they did it was usually someone else who initiated the conversation. They sat in silence as Ryou prepared to begin stitching Yugi's hand back together. Ryou surprised them both by breaking silence.

"Was… did the Pharaoh know your limits?" he asked, taking a glance up at Yugi.

"Uh, like, personal limits or?" he looked away from the ceiling that he'd been staring at to try and distract himself from the pain and at Ryou.

"No like, physical limits. Like did he ever try and do things that would hurt you? I know he'd been a spirit for a long time, did he remember the limits of being mortal or did he forget?" Yugi stared at Ryou for a moment, trying to figure out what had provoked the question, then he looked over to one of Ryou's shelves of figurines.

"I think he did. For the most part anyway, he didn't seem to be too disconnected from the pain that I could feel so I think if he had forgotten he was reminded pretty quickly," he answered, shrugging the shoulder that wasn't attached to the hand Ryou was fixing. Ryou only let out a small 'oh' in response, then they fell into silence again.

"So… why do you ask?" Yugi finally chanced the question. He felt Ryou pause his stitching again before he spoke.

"I was just wondering. I didn't think the spirit really knew what being mortal meant anymore so I was thinking that maybe the Pharaoh had forgotten as well. But... you said he could feel what you felt?"

"Yeah, I mean he never tried to hurt me like-" he stopped himself and looked to Ryou out of the corner of his eyes. He could see Ryou had snuck a glance at the hand the spirit had speared through the top of a plastic castle when they'd first met him. "I never ended up with injuries that were more than just bruises or scrapes that would have happened if I was in control anyway."

"Did the spirit ever seem to feel pain?"

Yugi tried to think back to his meetings with the spirit. He remembered seeing an array of emotions on the spirit's face, but he didn't think pain was ever one of them. He'd seen the spirit duel with the injury that knocked Ryou to the floor when he was in control and he didn't remember the spirit so much as wincing.

"Not really. He usually just laughed it off now that I think about it… Did he do more than just what he did to your arm and hand? Is that why he stole this kit?"

"I don't know if it was him who did it. Like I said I never really knew what it was he did when he controlled me at night, I just know that he always left me little gifts from his trips along with notes saying I should avoid certain parts of town or people. I do know whatever it was he was doing, it involved a lot of knives and I think a gun at one point. I couldn't exactly go to the hospital every time I got hurt, and I guess that's one thing the spirit did know," he spoke softly, focusing on stitching Yugi's hand. As he spoke, Yugi's attention turned to Ryou's face.

"Is that why you missed school so much?"

"Sometimes. I don't think the spirit really knew what my school schedule, or he just didn't care, so he tended to not make things easy for me to go school without there being something suspicious," he laughed as he spoke, but Yugi knew what he was saying wasn't a joke.

About a month after that night passed, Yugi saw Ryou wear a sleeveless shirt for the first time in years, and he saw an ugly scar near his shoulder. He didn't need to ask where it was from, instead he just complimented Ryou for the shirt. Yugi couldn't help but feel that it was a step in moving on.


	3. Food

Yugi had always had a talent for observing people. Before he'd met his friends he spent most of his time alone with nothing to do but watch people, at least, when he wasn't attempting to solve the puzzle. He always took notes of little behaviors or patterns, nervous habits, favorite foods, the like. He paid special attention to his friends, watching for abnormal behaviors that would be a sign of distress, taking note of their interests and storing the information away for later when he wanted to get them a gift.

Ryou had been no exception to this treatment. He knew his favorite color was pastel blue, he loved doves and would always take care to avoid disturbing them in parking lots or on the street, when he was nervous he always pulled at the back of his hair, and when he was especially excited he would fidget in any way he could. All these details had been consistent through all the time he'd known Ryou, except for one.

Ryou's appetite had always seemed… unusual. He rivaled Joey in terms of being a black hole when it came to food, and never seemed to be all too picky. After the trip to Egypt though, he'd changed drastically. He never ordered more than a normal meal and didn't even finish it most of the time, he'd entirely stopped eating beef and most seafood, and he spent a long time picking what it was he wanted to eat from grocery stores. At first Yugi had thought it was just from some kind of depression, the spirit hadn't been kind but Yugi couldn't blame him for feeling some kind of loss he supposed. It was strange to suddenly have something taken away from you, no matter how awful the thing was. However these trends in his eating never seemed to change no matter how much time passed. They were in the middle of preparing dinner when Yugi finally approached subject.

"I've been wondering, what made you quit eating beef all the sudden? You used to eat just about anything when we first met," he tossed the words over his shoulder as he set the water to boil on the stove. Ryou turned from the cupboard to look at him.

"Oh- I never really liked the texture. Haven't really since I was a kid," he shrugged before turning back to pull some base for their soup out. Ryou said the sentence like it actually made any sense, if he'd never liked it then why would he even bother eating it.

"But you didn't stop eating it until just now?"

Ryou paused again, seeming to get a better grasp of what Yugi was asking him.

"No, I didn't eat it as a kid either. Wasn't really until I moved here I started eating it," he shrugged, "It was available, so I couldn't really complain I guess."

Yugi hummed in acknowledgement, though he was still confused. He knew Ryou's uncle had always sent him enough money for food and rent, it didn't add up that he would be forced to eat something he didn't like. Yugi's confusion must have been evident, because after another pause Ryou let out a barely audible sigh.

"Remember what I said about limits? When you cut your hand?" Yugi looked down at the hand he'd cut, there was no really mark there but he could feel the line where he'd done the damage.

"Sure. The spirit didn't know them," he recalled.

"Food was um, one of those limits he didn't really… get, I guess. I don't think he really remembered that he was supposed to eat regularly, or do most anything you're supposed to do to function," at that he let out a breathy laugh. "I'd come back from a blackout and feel like I hadn't eaten in forever, hunger has a way of making you forget your preferences I suppose."

"Is this what it was like before the spirit came along? You ate like…"

"Like a normal person?" Ryou offered, bringing over the ingredients from the cupboard. "Yeah, at least as far as I remember. Mom would always complain about how picky I was as a kid, she probably would have been relieved if she'd met me when the spirit was around."

Yugi couldn't help but smile at that. Ryou had been opening up to him so much as of late, something he wouldn't have even dreamed of when they'd first moved in together. He'd always tiptoed around the time he was possessed, and he still did avoid certain parts of that time, but he'd begun acknowledging what had happened in a way that wasn't clearly uncomfortable. It was amazing to watch him grow like this, recovering and revealing himself to if not the world, at least to Yugi.

After that night Yugi began taking closer notes of what Ryou ate, since it was clear his old information had become outdated. He tried to surprise Ryou with his favorite, even though he wasn't much of a cook himself. Even if the food didn't turn out, the look on Ryou's face when he showed him his efforts was enough.


	4. Father

AN:i just wanted to leave a quick note about this chapter.

i discuss ryou and yugi's families a bit in this chapter, and i'm aware some of the things i state aren't necessarily canon since im considering the anime and dsod as canon and the situation with ryou's father and how he received the ring is inconsistent between the two. i also add something about yugi's father, who in the manga is only ever mentioned to be away on business once.

tw for some discussions of death and brief mentions of terminal illness and loss of a family member.

* * *

It wasn't until after they began sharing an apartment Yugi learned that the man Ryou always referred to as his dad in casual conversation was his uncle. Ryou said it was because it led to fewer questions or confusion if he simply lied to those who didn't need to know the truth. It hadn't even been Ryou who'd brought the subject to Yugi's attention, rather it was one of the few personal photos he kept in the apartment. It was a family photo, featuring two women Yugi assumed to be Ryou's mother and sister who had passed long ago, Ryou himself, and a man who Yugi didn't recognize. Common sense told him it was Ryou's father, but the man in the photo looked older than the one Yugi had seen in other photos. His hair was white, like Ryou's, and he had lines under his eyes showing his age.

Ryou was vague on the subject, but as far as he'd said his father had passed away while overseas and his father's brother had taken him in. His uncle was an archaeologist much like Ryou's father, and spent as much time searching over the world for antiques and untold history buried under ground as his father as well. Ryou spoke about it in a stilted and almost bitter tone. He'd never known the boy to be openly bitter, and something told him he shouldn't push the subject since it seemed to bother him so much.

If Yugi was being honest, it bothered him quite a bit as well. He was no stranger to having an absent father, before the man passed his father spent more time on the other side of the country in meeting than he did with his family, and he still felt some bitterness for the lack of contact. His father had regretted spending so much time away when he'd fallen ill, and spent his last year home, and Yugi hated seeing another man make the same mistake his own father had. He knew Ryou still had some contact with his uncle, the man would call irregularly for a few minutes at a time before something new called for his attention. It was mostly easy to simply forget about Ryou's family most of the time, but then they saw Diva again.

Diva himself hadn't been the issue. He wasn't there on another vendetta mission, nor was he in possession of any of the otherworldly powers he'd had last time. He was simply visiting the city on a whim, and he'd barely even spoken to Yugi much. The issue had been Ryou's reaction to seeing Diva.

Yugi could feel him tense up when they saw Diva, and he noticed that Ryou quickly pretended that he hadn't even seen the boy and attempted to continue walking in a direction away from Diva. Yugi understood the apprehension, but when Ryou had to excuse himself from their group claiming he wasn't feeling well Yugi knew something more was off. He returned home with Ryou despite the boy insisting he didn't want Yugi to take himself away from his friends, and while he said nothing on the subject when they got home, he kept a close eye on Ryou.

An hour into watching the finale of some competitive cooking show Yugi didn't even know the name of, Yugi was reminded of something Joey had said after Atem had returned to defeat Diva. He'd said Diva had done something to Ryou when they'd first learned of his true nature. Joey said he was sent away before he learned anything else, but it sounded like he had made Ryou remember something about some night.

"What happened when you and Joey were caught by Diva?" Yugi's look of surprise when he said that matched Ryou's. He quickly looked away from Ryou in embarrassment, "You don't have to answer that- I was just thinking about Diva because you seemed fine until we ran into him. I didn't mean to bring it up," he spoke quickly, hoping that they could move on even though part of his was now desperately curious.

"No I- I figured you would have questions," Ryou spoke quietly, "I kind of knew it was a matter of time when you hadn't asked when I came back." Yugi winced at the statement. In the excitement of everything that had happened, questioning Ryou had been pushed far aside. By the time he was ready to ask him what had happened, some time had passed and Yugi feared that he would be dragging up a conversation Ryou had been attempting to forget.

"It's just…" Yugi looked over at Ryou to watch for signs to stop his questioning, "Joey had said he wanted you specifically, and he'd done something to hurt you."

"He wanted revenge," he said simply, not looking away from the television. It didn't take much for Yugi to put together that it wasn't actually Ryou Diva had been wanting to take revenge on, he'd been on the receiving ends of far too many vendetta's against the spirit he hosted to be naive enough to believe people would leave the host out of revenge quests against the spirit possessing them.

"He wanted revenge on the spirit," Yugi concluded.

"Yes, he didn't know it was the spirit but yes," he paused for a moment, before asking a question that Yugi hadn't expected.

"Do you remember what I said about my father?" Yugi paused for a moment before responding.

"Your uncle?"

"No," Ryou said, barely letting Yugi finish the question. "My real father," he added.

"You've never really said much about him, just that he travelled a lot and died while overseas," he recalled. Ryou's expression remained unreadable.

"I used to go along with him," he added, "After Amane and my mother passed, he began taking me along with him overseas. He was searching for something," Ryou winced and took a short pause.

"I lied to you about how my father got the ring," he said seemingly out of left field, "I didn't mean to, I promise, I just didn't… remember how I'd gotten it. I just made up a reason and it stuck I guess," he shrugged. "The truth is, that's what my father was looking for. I never learned why, but I know he was obsessed with finding it. When he'd finally learned of a possible location of it he was so excited. I could feel that going there would be a disaster but… he was finally finding what he'd been searching for. I didn't want to stop him, I thought," he sucked in a deep breath, "I thought we'd finally go home if he found it."

They sat in silence for a moment. Yugi pulled Ryou in by the shoulders, though Ryou didn't respond to it, instead he just let it happen.

"I followed him without his knowledge and when he found the ring he was happier than I'd seen him in months. There was a man there, and some kids. I didn't hear what they said to Dad but I just remember them letting him take the ring. Next thing I knew he was on the ground and asking me to get the ring for him. I did and I guess… I don't remember much of what happened after that, just flashes. I remember my chest hurting, and screaming. I think-" he sucked in another gasp, this time he was clearly attempting to hold back tears, "I think I killed someone. I… I know I killed someone. That's why Diva wanted me, he said he was one of the children. I tried to apologize but he was so upset, and then there was another man and he had the ring and-" Ryou shook his head, "I felt something, I felt the power of the ring, and then I was gone."

They sat in silence again, and after a moment Ryou leaned in to Yugi's arms.

"Did the ring… is the ring the reason your dad…" Yugi tried to find a way to ask the question, but Ryou nodded before he could find the words.

"It was so stupid," Ryou finally spoke again, "I could have stopped him but I decided to be selfish. I didn't do anything to stop him, I didn't do anything to stop the spirit and I made myself forget about the night and put you all in danger by not knowing about the spirit."

"It's not your faul-"

"Yugi because of me my dad died, and I risked your life and so many others by forgetting about the spirit to make myself feel better. If things had just been a little different, you could have all been trapped in figurines for the rest of eternity. I let all those kids from my old schools be subjected to penalty games, I can't even imagine how terrified they all were. You can't tell me it wasn't my fault, even if I didn't pull the trigger I gave the spirit the gun and did nothing to stop him from shooting it," by now the tears he'd been holding back overflowed.

Yugi felt his own eyes grow wet as well. He remembered the terror he felt while fighting against the spirit, the horrible things the being had promised to do, and the fact that he couldn't even trust his friend because the spirit could be listening or influencing him at any time. He felt guilt rise up as he remembered his own feelings of hurt when he learned Ryou had the ring in his possession again. He'd never said anything, he knew it wasn't Ryou's choice to take the ring back most of the time, it was simply fate that it found its way back to him over and over again. But he couldn't erase the feelings of resentment that rose up when he was most scared, or when the spirit fooled them yet again into believing he was their friend.

"I felt that same guilt when Atem risked Kaiba's life."

Ryou's breath paused for a moment.

"Ryou, you're not alone in this. Even if there was something you could have done, no one here blames you for what happened. You saved us the first time we met the spirit, remember? You showed us the way to Pegasus' castle, you were there for me when I was scared and confused by what was happening to me," the words spilled out along with tears, "You showed me that I wasn't alone in this. That there was someone else who actually understood what I said when I talked about the spirit. Even if the others believed me they had no idea what it felt like, they hardly even had proof I was telling the truth. If you hadn't been there- Ryou I don't know what would have happened."

Ryou didn't respond vocally, instead he simply nodded after a long moment. They sat in each other's arms for awhile, the only sound being the now forgotten cooking show. They didn't speak or move, they just sat there with the words they'd spoken and the feeling of appreciation that they had met. They woke up the next morning still on the couch and stiff from the way they'd slept, and ate breakfast in silence. They didn't speak of the conversation during the day, but the following night when Ryou crawled into bed, he leaned in and whispered to Yugi.

"Thank you."


	5. Acting

"My uncle's coming home."

Ryou made the announcement shortly after getting off of a hushed call in the other room. Yugi looked up from the cards he was absent mindedly shuffling in surprise. Yugi had actually never had the chance to meet Ryou's uncle before, despite the fact they'd been living in the same apartment for nearly a year. He turned to face Ryou, and saw that he didn't look exactly happy. He also didn't look upset, or angry, or confused. Yugi really couldn't place exactly what look Ryou had in that moment, it wasn't blank but it wasn't really not blank either.

"Yeah?" Yugi didn't mention it, he didn't need to ask why he wasn't acting excited, "How long?"

"He said a week, could be shorter or longer though. I really couldn't tell you," Ryou joined him on the couch where he'd been sitting before his phone had rung and he'd hurriedly left the room. "I think he only stayed a few days last time, the spirit didn't really tell me much about the visit," he shrugged, leaning forward to look at the cards Yugi had left spread out on the table.

"You don't remember?" Ryou looked at his out of the corner of his eye when Yugi spoke.

"Oh um, no. The spirit was in the middle of something he claimed was important so he stayed in control for most the visit," he answered turning his eyes back to the cards. He picked one up and began observing the art closely, though it was painfully obvious he was simply trying to distract himself.

"Thats… your uncle, he didn't notice?" Yugi dropped his hands to his lap, absentmindedly thumbing through the cards.

"What do you mean?"

"Your uncle didn't notice something was off."

"I don't know," Ryou shrugged again, an uncomfortable look crossed his face, "Like I said I don't remember it well."

"Ryou if he noticed and left you anyway thats-"

"The spirit was a good actor Yugi, you know that. It wasn't my uncle's fault, he couldn't have known," Yugi had never really heard Ryou defend his uncle before, but then again he'd never heard Ryou even talk about his uncle much either.

"I just don't understand how he couldn't have noticed, I mean just living with you for this amount of time I've noticed just how much different you are without the spirit, your uncle's known you since you were a child," Yugi kept his voice level, but he couldn't help but feel a little upset about the entire situation.

"Yugi, no one noticed when the spirit was in control unless he wanted them to know," he put the card back on the table, "He knew how to play me on the surface, and how to keep anyone from seeing past the surface. I spent an entire tournament possessed with a stab wound and no one caught on until the spirit wanted them to catch on," the words came out without bitterness, but instead they just sounded resigned. Like he was stating facts from a textbook.

"I… guess…" Yugi finally conceded. He didn't want to speak what they were both thinking, the fact that Yugi was one of the people who'd been fooled by the spirit. What Ryou said was right, the spirit had a way to playing human that made them all feel like they were safe and the spirit hadn't returned yet again.

"You know, none of us realized that Atem was controlling me until we met the spirit," he laughed a little as he said the words, "I mean, it even took us a bit after that as well to figure it out."

Despite the fact he said the words with humor, he knew how scary the prospect was. That you could be overtaken by another being and no one noticed, even your closest friends. Ryou smiled a bit at the words.

"It's funny, they were so bad at being people, but they could play the part of a person so well," Ryou's smile grew a bit as he spoke the words.

"I don't know if I'd say that was always the case. Did I ever tell you I made Atem spend a whole day with Tea once?" he laughed at the memory, "He didn't know what to do at first, he tried to put me back in control because it wasn't a duel."

Ryou let out an actual laugh at that one. Yugi continued to talk about some of the things Atem had done while in control of his body that revealed just how long he'd been locked in the puzzle. After several stories, Ryou finally opened up one of his own.

"You know, nothing much scared the spirit but there was one thing that never failed to make him run off most of the time," Yugi perked up at this. He'd almost never heard of the spirit backing down, the thing was essentially a spiritual cockroach.

"He couldn't handle it when we were alone. He'd hang around with you all some times just to learn anything he could about you and the puzzle, but the second we were alone he pushed me back in control so fast I almost fell over. There are a couple times I remember just waking up in front of a television in the game shop with a controller in my hands and you next to me," he gave a soft laugh. "I never really questioned it either, I didn't want to ruin the moment." He paused before saying the next sentence.

"I think that's when I realized I wanted to stay like that forever."

The rest of the night was spent arranging decks and telling stories from when they'd first met. It was peaceful, and they both felt like they were back in the game shop sitting in a dark room with half empty soda bottles and a forgotten pizza box in the corner.


	6. Ghosts

Watching bad ghost hunting shows while sitting on the couch with all the lights off was the nightly ritual in Yugi and Ryou's apartment. It had started out as Ryou's idea, and when it started they'd only watched in on the weekends, but as time passed they found themselves in the same position every night watching reruns of the same few shows together. The time was usually spent with the two of them laughing over how fake most of the episodes were, though Ryou always watched intently for the first few moments as they went over the history of each of the locations visited.

The first night they'd watched one of the shows, Yugi had been completely taken aback by how much Ryou laughed at the screen each time new 'evidence' was collected about whatever ghost was supposedly haunting the area.

"I thought you believed in this sort of thing?" Yugi'd asked during one of the many commercials.

"Of course I believe in this sort of thing, I mean how could I not at this point?" Ryou answered over the mug in his hands, "I just don't believe in everything that's happening in these shows," he shrugged.

"I mean, it's pretty obvious the main guy in this one is just being overdramatic so the camera's on him all the time. Anytime one of his partners gets tripped or hears something five minutes later he's getting possessed or some ghost is trying to kill him. It's pretty obvious not everything that's going on is actually paranormal," he continued. Yugi hummed in acknowledgement, pulling his legs up to his chest.

"How come you watch them then?" Yugi asked, looking away from the screen.

"They're a good laugh I guess. And there's some cool stuff in here, and I'm pretty certain a lot of these locations really are haunted too. Besides I guess it's a little nostalgic. I watched these shows all the time as a kid, they used to scare the daylights out of me back then too," he let out a soft laugh. Shortly after he stopped speaking the show began again, and the two sat in silence waiting for the next not-so-horrifying moment to occur.

"See what I'm saying?" Ryou broke in after the main guy began throwing himself into a wall, "The other guy just got pushed so now he has to one up him by getting 'possessed'," Ryou pointed to the screen with a smile on his face, "It's so obvious what he's trying to do," he rolled his eyes as he spoke.

"I hadn't even noticed before," Yugi laughed at the revelation, "I honestly just thought he had bad luck with ghosts."

"Well, with the way he talks to them that wouldn't surprise me. I'm pretty sure he'd get more responses if he didn't antagonize the things he's trying to question and prove the existence of."

"You think so?"

"Well, every ghosts different, but when it comes to the non-malicious spirits then yeah I'd say so."

"Maybe we should start one of these shows, you seem like you know a bit about how to communicate and at this point we're both pretty well versed in the whole spirit world thing," Yugi joked.

"I wanted to when I was a kid you know. Me and another kid in my school, Hiro, had even bought our own cameras and voice recorders. We'd stay over at each other's houses and try to contact spirits in our houses," Ryou recalled. Yugi had never heard this story before, then again Yugi didn't really know much anything about Ryou's life from before he came to Domino. Most of what he knew was just a vague timeline of events that Ryou didn't really seem interested in elaborating on.

"What made you stop?"

"Oh uh, he just didn't take it quite as seriously as I did I guess," the way Ryou spoke made it sound like it obviously wasn't quite as simple as that.

"Oh… did the spirit?" Yugi said slowly, trying to find out of this one of Ryou's friends who'd found themselves in a figurine.

"Oh no, no," Ryou quickly said, looking over at Yugi, "This was before all that happened. He just um… He faked some results. He called me over to his house and he said he'd gotten some audio from Amane," Ryou said slowly, "I listened to it and I realized pretty fast it was just some audio of his older sister he'd taken. I don't know if it was supposed to be a prank or it was supposed to impress me or something but I moved pretty shortly after that and just never did it with anyone else."

"Really? That's pretty… wow," Yugi said, looking down at the table in front of them. It wasn't really much of a wonder why Ryou never spoke about Hiro to him.

"We were just kids and I know he didn't mean to hurt me but… I don't know, I guess I'm still upset about it," Ryou took a long sip from his tea.

"Do you still have any of the equipment?" Yugi asked, trying to pull the focus away from Hiro.

"Um, not that equipment but I have a different recorder and an EMF my uncle got me for my last birthday," Ryou seemed to lighten up a bit.

"Well I'm pretty sure we could talk the guys into coming with us to some place that's supposed to be haunted and we could try 'em out. Might be a fun thing to do together since we haven't really all hung out together in a long while."

"Yeah! I've been trying to get Joey to realize this stuff isn't that scary anyway," Ryou agreed, now seeming a bit excited. The rest of the show was ignored in favor of the two trying to find nearby areas that were supposedly haunted and trying to find some way to convince their friends to come along. It was the first time he'd seen Ryou smile so brightly in a long time, and Yugi couldn't help but feel his heart beat just a little harder whenever he looked up at his face.


End file.
